A year has passed since that announcement which represented an earthquake for generalist TV. on May 14, 2023 Fabio Fazio announced his farewell to Rai after 40 yearsbringing his Che Tempo Che Fa to Nove and thus opening a new time for television in Italy.
The first season of the program broadcast on the Discovery network ended with the May 12th episode, an operation that proved to be a great success with the public and consensus. With the move to Nove, Fazio put to the test the audience cultivated over the years on Rai3, then Rai1, Rai2 and again Rai3, capitalizing on the consensus of a very specific and politicized audience, willing to follow him even outside the conventional perimeter of the remote control .
The knock-on effects after Fazio’s farewell to Rai
With the move to the Discovery network, Fazio has not only certified his reputation, but has led the way. What happened to Amadeus in recent months, with the host who has decided to leave Rai after many years for a new adventure in Nove, would not have even been conceivable a year ago. His farewell to Rai, which kicks off the heaviest season of reputation crisis experienced by the company in recent years, will imply a series of chain effects that could heavily impact the current dynamics of the small screen, with a desirable renewal of the faces of tip of the TV and an electric shock to a system in which new ideas are scarce and we live on recursion.
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Just when it was believed to be definitively destined for progressive oblivion, Italian television found itself at the center of a new and interesting era, which perhaps will not be able to revive the fortunes of this means of communication, but will probably help break some patterns consolidated and apparently unchangeable.
Nine a new Canale 5?
There are those who have compared this era of Nove to that of the first Canale 5, in the years in which Berlusconi broke the Rai television monopoly with millions and new television languages. It will be curious to understand if Nove will succeed in an even remotely comparable undertaking, given the necessary historical differences. Above all, it will be interesting to understand if Fazio will go, as promised, beyond Che Tempo Che Fa, a format necessary to attract the public to the network, but promoted with the aim of being a premise for new ideas.
“The future belongs to the professionally curious”, was the phrase from an old film that I try to remember every day. I have been writing about entertainment and television since 2012, cultivating the hope of being able to tell the reality we see through a screen, whatever size it is. Renzo Arbore is my prophet.
